Improvements on horizon for Lynn View Community Center

KINGSPORT — The Lynn View Community Center is on track to receive a number of greatly needed upgrades over the next three years with the help of a $450,000 grant from the Tennessee Department of Health.

Kingsport has been awarded a second $450,000 Project Diabetes grant from the TDH, the only community in Northeast Tennessee to receive such a grant this year. The grant aims to help reduce diabetes and obesity and improve wellness initiatives within the community. It provides $150,000 a year for three years and has no matching portion.

The Model City received a similar grant in 2016 and used those funds — along with $550,000 in additional city money — to improve and enhance Borden Park with two sets of new playground equipment, a paved and expanded walking trail, a resurfaced basketball court and an open plaza near Lamont Street.

LYNN VIEW PROJECT

Kingsport purchased the old Lynn View High School a decade ago and since then has made a number of improvements to the facility, most recently replacing the old concrete grandstand with aluminum bleachers.

Kitty Frazier, manager of the Parks and Recreation Department, said the new Lynn View improvements will be done over the next three years, beginning in FY 2020 and continuing through FY 2022. Work will begin sometime after July 1 and be done in three phases:

— Phase one: improving the track around the football field

— Phase two: creating playground space on the old playground site just above the old school

— Phase three: creating a basketball court near the playground site

Kingsport’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee has requested additional funds from the city to make the Lynn View project whole, as was done with the Borden Park project. Frazier said the department has requested $220,000 next fiscal year, $721,000 in 2021 and $500,000 in 2022 for Lynn View improvements.

Once a contract is in place with the state in July, the city will begin on the design for the upgrades.